Interdisciplinary research

[Raiyan]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some clue on how to approach toward a goal of interdisciplinary research.

Have you performed such a research, what were your expectations from the project at the beginning ?

What are the challenges you faced, how did you over come them ?

Did the outcome and/or end result meet your expectations ?

As a student of computer science my research interest is (but not limited) to study environment and nature from the informatics point of view. I would also appreciate if anyone can shed some light on this in particular. Thanks for your time.

[Eigen]

Interdisciplinary research can be hugely different from field to field, depending on if it's a common area of study in one subfield, if the overlapping areas are fairly closely related or widespread, and what collaborations exist.

For what you're saying, you're more interested in computational environmental science. It's not a huge field, but it's certainly one that I've seen research that could fit into. If you're already attending somewhere, your options will be more likely limited by what, specifically, is available at your current school.

Generally, you need to approach interdisciplinary research by gaining a thorough understanding of at least the basics of both fields. I'm assuming your background is informatics, so how well versed are you on environmental theory, biology, etc? You also need a more specific field of interest than "informatics in the environment and nature". Are you more interested in populations and ecology, renewable energy, water purification/preservation, soil and geosciences? Each of these areas will require a different approach and background.

[surefire]

Have you performed such a research, what were your expectations from the project at the beginning ?

What are the challenges you faced, how did you over come them ?

Did the outcome and/or end result meet your expectations ?

My MA thesis was very interdisciplinary in nature (though it doesn't trespass into any of your stated fields of interest). The project drew upon Sociology, Law, Epidemiology, Public Policy and Health Studies.

Expectations: I think that it's very promising and important that you're asking about expectations. One of the greatest favours that you can do for yourself with an interdisciplinary project is to manage your expectations. You should ascertain early on what this project CAN and CANNOT accomplish. For my part, the topic that I chose was very important to me, so I decided early on to be rigorous and to do justice to all the fields that I was drawing upon; this means, not just cherry-picking what you like from each, but also being obligated to the foundational theorists/frameworks and ongoing developments of EACH discipline. This can be exhausting. I expected the backround reading to be extensive, what I didn't realize is the amount of UPKEEP that is required to stay ahead of developments in the field.

Challenges: Other than the upkeep thing... The most challenging aspect was my writing. I secured an amazing, tough-as-nails supervisor early on, and when I brought her my 1st draft, 20-page proposal, she said that my ideas/data/direction were all great, but I was going to have to re-write the entire thing because my style/vocabulary was NOT accessible considering that the project was interdisciplinary (and thus had an audience with varied backrounds and underdstandings). I was crushed; I turned in 6 drafts of that proposal before she accepted it...

Other possible challenges: While this wasn't a requirement for me, I had colleagues doing interdisciplinary work who faced the additional challenge of securing ethics committee clearence. Requirements/submission guidelines can differ depending on your program and the aims/parameters of your project. If you're doing work that requires this type of clearence, and the project is interdisciplinary in nature, you would be wise to figure out your obligations early. This challenge also applies to some funding/conference/journal applications.

Outcomes vs. Expectations: When I started the project, I was afraid that some of the aims of my research would be mis/re-directed by well-meaning but stong-willed thesis committee members who - depending on their disciplinary loyalties - would try to exert control over the project's priorities. It can be tough to draft something that is true to your interests while also being open to new theoretical contributions and diplomatic concerning the advice of committee members. I was pleased with how I negotiated this terrain. The end result was a thesis that answered the questions that I had initially started out with, but also posed new ones that I hadn't considered at the beginning of the endeavour which brought depth and scope to the research.

Bottom line: The best things that you can do when undertaking interdisciplinary research is: 1.) to be hyper-conscious of the intent, purpose and direction of your project; be true to these principles, but also be aware of your obligations to the fields that you are playing in and the advice of your committee and/or profs. 2.) Secure a kick-ass supervisor who will appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of your work, be receptive to your research aims and be relentless and helpful regarding the intricacies of straddling more than one field.

Good luck!

[Raiyan]

Generally, you need to approach interdisciplinary research by gaining a thorough understanding of at least the basics of both fields. I'm assuming your background is informatics, so how well versed are you on environmental theory, biology, etc? You also need a more specific field of interest than "informatics in the environment and nature". Are you more interested in populations and ecology, renewable energy, water purification/preservation, soil and geosciences? Each of these areas will require a different approach and background.

Thanks for the insightful posting, Eigen. I can see that my first step should be to decide upon what I exactly want to do. You guessed it right, my background is informatics. Sadly enough I'm not well versed in environmental theory, biology, etc. I'm considering extensive self study and/or enrolling into courses in relevant discipline once I've decided the topic of my research. But end of the day, it all depends on the options available to me from the school.

[Raiyan]

Bottom line: The best things that you can do when undertaking interdisciplinary research is: 1.) to be hyper-conscious of the intent, purpose and direction of your project; be true to these principles, but also be aware of your obligations to the fields that you are playing in and the advice of your committee and/or profs. 2.) Secure a kick-ass supervisor who will appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of your work, be receptive to your research aims and be relentless and helpful regarding the intricacies of straddling more than one field.

Good luck!

Thank you for sharing the experience, surefire. Appreciate it a lot. I know that my supervisor is interested in interdisciplinary work, but don't know up to what extent I should expect support.

I have a few research ideas floating around my head at the moment, some of them would involve collaborating with another researcher(s) from biology department. What is the generally accepted protocol for approaching another department with the intent of collaboration ? Can anyone give me some clue ?

[Eigen]

At least at my school, the biology department is quite formal, meaning they want the PI to do the negotiating on a collaborative venture.

My suggestion would be to look at what your biology program has as far as research directions, and find somewhere you think you could add in a new direction. Then talk to your advisor about approaching them.

Alternatively/additionally, go meet some grad students in that lab. While all of my collaborative ventures have officially come from "formal" collaborations, they started with me and a fellow grad student or two. We could talk out some ideas, and then pitch them to our respective advisors. And other grad students are often much easier to approach.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Have you done any bioinformatics? There's a lot of environmental microbiologists who could use a bioinformaticist in the lab.

[Tall Chai Latte]

Have you performed such a research, what were your expectations from the project at the beginning ?

What are the challenges you faced, how did you over come them ?

Did the outcome and/or end result meet your expectations ?

For what my lab is interested in -- the research draws knowledge from pathology, biochemistry, small molecule synthesis, and ever since I joined, biophysics/structural biology has been added to the list. To me, interdisciplinary research is to answer a scientific question with many different techniques/tools. I may be responsible for a small part of the bigger picture, and the project will utilize my background as well as providing opportunities to pick up new things.

One thing I find challenging in interdisciplinary work is communication: not everyone knows what you know, and not to the same extent. Sometimes communication becomes a problem here because people are not "speaking the same scientific language". How I overcome this was by reading up on what I don't know, also strive to keep the explanations simple when telling others (who are not in your field) about your part. Of course, get help when you have questions.

Does the outcome match my expectation? I think so. I just got on this project, we'll see.

[BlueRose]

I've been doing interdisciplinary work for awhile. It's great, but the challenges are real.

As surefire said, working in N disciplines means you have N literatures to learn and stay current with. At some point, if you want to get any work done, you have to enforce your own discipline - meaning you won't be an expert on the more distant corners of any of those fields. Which means you'll occasionally say something ignorant, and the single-discipline people will look at you funny.

Your background sections will be much more challenging to write. No matter what you do, or what audience you're writing for, part of your work will involve something your audience hasn't thought about since high school. You have to drag them up to speed, quickly, while making them care enough to pay attention.

You'll have to deal with different cultures and different expectations. If you're writing a paper with a biologist and a computer scientist, the biologist will refuse to use LaTeX and the computer person will refuse to use Word. If these same people are reviewing your CV, the biologist will ignore your conferences and the computer person will ignore your journal articles. Both may undervalue the importance and difficulty of what you're doing on the other side, not because they're snobbish, but because that's not what they know and care about.

You will need to be co-advised, which can be good or bad (serving two masters), but you do want someone from each major discipline around. I've done computational work in an otherwise 100% biology lab; it was okay, but I was totally on my own, and it would have been hard to do real research that way.

And when you get out, it'll be that much harder to find a job, especially if you're looking at industry. People write job descriptions for the single-discipline experts; even if your extra skills would be useful, you're probably not going to score as well on the HR checklist as the person who's been doing one discipline all along. The job that wants you, will really want you, but there may not be many to choose from.

But - if you find your niche - you may end up doing things that nobody else can do. And that's worth it to me.

[InquilineKea]

I've been doing interdisciplinary work for awhile. It's great, but the challenges are real.

As surefire said, working in N disciplines means you have N literatures to learn and stay current with. At some point, if you want to get any work done, you have to enforce your own discipline - meaning you won't be an expert on the more distant corners of any of those fields. Which means you'll occasionally say something ignorant, and the single-discipline people will look at you funny.

Your background sections will be much more challenging to write. No matter what you do, or what audience you're writing for, part of your work will involve something your audience hasn't thought about since high school. You have to drag them up to speed, quickly, while making them care enough to pay attention.

You'll have to deal with different cultures and different expectations. If you're writing a paper with a biologist and a computer scientist, the biologist will refuse to use LaTeX and the computer person will refuse to use Word. If these same people are reviewing your CV, the biologist will ignore your conferences and the computer person will ignore your journal articles. Both may undervalue the importance and difficulty of what you're doing on the other side, not because they're snobbish, but because that's not what they know and care about.

You will need to be co-advised, which can be good or bad (serving two masters), but you do want someone from each major discipline around. I've done computational work in an otherwise 100% biology lab; it was okay, but I was totally on my own, and it would have been hard to do real research that way.

And when you get out, it'll be that much harder to find a job, especially if you're looking at industry. People write job descriptions for the single-discipline experts; even if your extra skills would be useful, you're probably not going to score as well on the HR checklist as the person who's been doing one discipline all along. The job that wants you, will really want you, but there may not be many to choose from.

But - if you find your niche - you may end up doing things that nobody else can do. And that's worth it to me.

This is an amazing post.

And I completely agree. It is rewarding in so many ways. But it is extremely exhausting to have to stay up-to-date with at least 3-4 different research areas (now, I'll have to admit that 2 of them are really just ones I pursue for fun), and I have little free time for anything else.

Nonetheless, I disagree about the "finding a job" part. I think that people in interdisciplinary fields can have it easier if they're doing computational/analytical work (they get more programs to apply to where they could be a competitive applicant). Humanities might be different though.

[Raiyan]

Could not agree more. Thanks a lot for the a well written post, BlueRose.

But - if you find your niche - you may end up doing things that nobody else can do. And that's worth it to me.

Exactly ! that is my driving force.